“Trust me, how? I will pay for your services up front.” Kenneth looked genuinely puzzled, as if he didn’t know. “As for our family history, that’s part of the reason I specifically wanted to hire you. I know that your grandmother worked as an assistant to my grandfather when he brought back a collection of Sumerian artwork in the 1960s.”
“You know…what?” the lie was so huge that it was like a slap in the face. His assistant? As if! Kenneth’s grandfather had been Sophronia’s assistant, when she was a famous antiquities dealer and professor at the University of Upstate New York in the 1960s. He’d seduced his way into her good graces…and the rest was family history. Bitter, ugly family history.
Chloe fell back a step.
He kept going, unaware of the turmoil he’d stirred within her.
“Hamish Stewart, who’s worked for my family for fifty years managing our art collection, says that your family has approached my family in the past, trying to buy that collection of Sumerian artwork. Since your grandmother was working for – what’s wrong?” he finally noticed her horrified expression.
“Working for him? Are you trying to tell me that you don’t know?”
“Don’t know what?” He looked genuinely puzzled.
“Your grandfather and my grandmother were fated mates, and they were engaged. He was working for her, not the other way around, and she owned the art collection. Then he broke off the engagement, stole the collection of Sumerian artwork, and banned her from his house. He threw her over for your grandmother, who was wealthy and had connections. He hired security to keep her away from him; when she showed up at his house to ask why he was doing this to her, they tossed her out on the street. Physically. Violently.”
“Chloe, that…that doesn’t make sense. That simply doesn’t happen with fated mates.” Kenneth looked genuinely shocked.
“I’m sure she thought that too.” Chloe was backing away from him now, heading back towards the mansion, glaring at him furiously. “Maybe he just convinced her they were fated mates.”
“That feeling simply can’t be faked. You know that, don’t you?” He stared at her intently, as if silently asking for an acknowledgement of how he made her feel.
“And yet, he broke it off with her and broke her heart. Would a real fated mate do that?”
“But…she got married to someone else. Obviously. She had your mother. Chloe, there’s got to be some mistake here, none of this makes sense.”
“She remarried several times, she was widowed several times, and it doesn’t matter. She never recovered from the loss of your grandfather. She went crazy. Went crazy, is still crazy, thanks to your grandfather. Don’t talk to me again, Kenneth. I’m not going to work for you, or talk to you, or kiss you again, not now, not ever.”
To her utter mortification, she realized she was choking on a sob.
She turned and ran back towards the house, ignoring him as he shouted her name. Kenneth had made an utter fool of her. He was probably doubling over with laughter right now; she couldn’t bear to turn and look.
She’d actually let the man kiss her. No, worse, she’d kissed him back, quite enthusiastically.
And even worse, apparently her grandmother had meant so little to her fated mate that he hadn’t even bothered to mention the relationship to his own family. Kenneth had apparently not even known that Barrett and Sophronia had been engaged. Sophronia had been cast aside like a used up dishrag as soon as Barrett got what he wanted from her.
Tears burned her face as she raced around the side of the house, heading for her car.
She stumbled in the gravel, dodged around bushes, slapped at the tree branches that swatted her face – and ran right into the handsome man who’d been eyeing her earlier at the party.
“Are you all right?” he asked her, as she staggered back. He held his hand out to her and grabbed her arm to steady her.
Although he was every bit as handsome as Kenneth, she didn’t feel a thing when his fingers closed on her arm. There was no delicious zing of pleasure shooting through her body, a sensation she’d never experienced before Kenneth touched her.
“I’m fine.” She was aware of how utterly awful she must look right now. Her nose turned red when she cried. Her mascara and eyeliner would be running done her cheeks in muddy rivers. She was wearing a sweater over an evening gown.
Resolutely, she walked around the side of her house towards her car, and the man followed alongside her.
“I saw you talking to that man, earlier. Kenneth Chamberlin. I just wanted to let you know…he’s not to be trusted. Everything that he asks of you or tells you…he’s got his own agenda.”
“What? I mean, I know, but…”
Chloe realized to her shock that hearing him talk about Kenneth that way actually made her really angry. She suddenly wanted to leap to Kenneth’s defense, to verbally lash out at the man and tell him he was wrong and he didn’t know Kenneth at all.
Of course, neither did she, but she didn’t like hearing the man insult her fated mate like that.
What? Where had that thought come from?
Oh dear lord, help her. No. The universe was not that crazy. Kenneth’s grandfather had been her grandmother’s fated mate – how could two people in the same family – no. Just no. That one drink had really gone to her head, or the kiss, or both.
She kept stomping towards the car, and the man kept following her.
“Who are you, and what do you want with me? I’m not having a good night, and this is not a good time,” she snapped.
He reached into his pocket, grabbed a business card, and handed it to her. “My name is Alfonse. My phone number is on there. I have a business proposition for you. Will you call me tomorrow?”
“Probably not. ” She walked faster, and he stopped following her.
Chapter Six
Kenneth stood next to his chauffer, watching her rush towards her car. Her sweater caught on a bush, and she wrestled with it for a good 30 seconds before wrenching it free. . Then she dropped her keys underneath her car and had to drop to her hands and knees to fetch them.
He’d already noted the man who’d tried to talk to a minute earlier, fury rising in him when the man put his hand on her arm. His claws had shot from his fingers and he’d barely been able to force himself to sheath them. It was a good thing the man had stopped following her; he wasn’t sure he could have contained himself much longer.
“My God, that woman is a total mess,” the limo driver said scornfully. “A walking catastrophe. She’s”-
“The woman I’m going to marry.” Kenneth cut the limo driver off with a look.
“She – what? I mean – of course. What I meant to say- ”
“We’re good here,” Kenneth said, and, seeing that Chloe was safely driving away, climbed in the back of the limousine and shut the door.
He saw the man who’d been following Chloe climb into a rented BMW, and quickly noted the license plate number.
He’d been dying to rush over and free her from those bushes, to get her keys for her from under her car, but he suspected that now was not the time. He’d try to talk to her again tomorrow when she’d had time to calm down – and when he was armed with some facts about what had really happened between his grandfather and Sophronia.
He knew one thing. Chloe was the kind of woman who would always be tripping over things, falling into things – and he was going to be the one to catch her, every time. For the rest of his life. He’d find a way to make it happen, no matter what it took.
He’d try to deny it at first, but the moment his lips met hers, the moment her lips parted sweetly to accept his kiss…he was lost.
He closed his eyes and ran his hand wearily over his face, leaning back in his seat.
How would he make it happen?
The usual things that swept women off their feet, that made women melt into adoring puddles in his presence, wouldn’t work on her.
She didn’t care about his money. She didn’t care that h
e had the looks of a movie star. His charm bounced off her bulletproof exterior as if she were made of charm-repelling Teflon.
Oh, he could tell she was attracted to him – but as long as she believed that his family was evil and had somehow wronged her grandmother, she’d fight that attraction fang and claw.
Well, one thing he did have going for him – he had staff. He had resources. Time to start making phone calls.
He grabbed his telephone.
Nine thirty now in New York, so 3:30 in the morning in Italy, where Hamish lived…
The hell with it. This was an emergency, as far as he was concerned.
His fated mate despised him for something his grandfather may or may not have done, and he needed answers now.
“Hamish,” he said. “We need to talk.”
“Sir? Is everything all right?” the bleary voice on the other end of the line mumbled.
“I just met Chloe Novak, and she made some bizarre accusations. She said that my grandfather and her grandmother were fated mates, and he broke things off with her and married someone else. She said that he actually hired security to keep her away from his house.”
“That’s true.”
Kenneth sat stunned. Why had his parents never told him this before?
“He broke up with Sophronia Littlefield for another woman?”
“No. He married your grandmother five years after his relationship with Sophronia ended.”
“Wait. So, he didn’t leave my grandmother for Elizabeth?”
“Good heavens, no.” Hamish paused. “Since your grandfather’s been dead all these years…I suppose I wouldn’t be betraying a confidence.”
“Tell me.” Kenneth’s voice was low and dangerous. “Tell me about my grandfather and Sophronia.”
“Your grandfather and Sophronia Littlefield were utterly besotted. Deliriously in love. He owned a very successful art and antiquities dealership in Russettville. Sophronia was an adjunct professor at the University, and she started working with him as his assistant after they got engaged. She travelled with him on his acquisitions trips. Then, they went on a trip to the country of Turak, and returned with a large new collection, acquired from several dealers. They brought the collection to Barrett’s home. He had a warehouse on the property where he stored artwork and had it authenticated and catalogued before selling it. Everything seemed fine between them when they returned. I remember that it was a Friday.” He paused again, and took a deep breath. His voice was suddenly heavy with emotion. “I remember that because I returned to the house on a Monday and everything had changed.”
“What had changed?”
“Barrett was a wreck. He looked as if he hadn’t slept all weekend. He told me that under no uncertain terms was Sophronia to be allowed on the property. He didn’t want her hurt, he was very clear about that, but she was not to come on the property. He hired security to keep her off.”
He paused. “She tried to break in to the property many times. And she hired people to break on to the property. At first Barrett refused to press charges, but finally he did. She broke in again, and ended up doing six months in county jail. She lost her job at the university.”
Kenneth sat trying to absorb this astonishing information.
“Your grandfather was a changed man after that. Grim. Driven. He travelled the world constantly looking for something, but he never revealed what he was searching for. I never saw a genuine smile on his face again. Sophronia married an art dealer right after she got out of jail, and as I recall, the man died of a heart attack shortly afterwards and she inherited everything he had. Then she married again. Another wealthy man. He died of cancer. I know, because Barrett kept tabs on her, but still wouldn’t go anywhere near her. It was five full years before your grandfather married your grandmother Elizabeth, and no offense, but in all honesty, everybody knew that it wasn’t a love match for either of them.”
“I know,” Kenneth said quietly. His grandparents tolerated each other, but their marriage was clearly for political reasons, uniting two powerful and wealthy panther clans. They never even tried to pretend that they were fated mates.
His father had ended up doing the same thing. His parents had never bothered to get divorced, but took great pains to make sure that they stayed in opposite hemispheres from each other. His mother was currently enjoying Australia and her latest boy toy.
Kenneth had thought loveless marriages were his family curse, and had vowed never to marry. He hadn’t even believed that a Chamberlin could find a fated mate – until his lips had met Chloe’s in the garden, and the world had tilted under his feet. .
“So Barrett never confided what he was looking for?” Kenneth said.
“The only thing that I can tell you is he became obsessed with ancient Sumerian art, and with the country of Turak. He went back there again and again. He tried to speak to the person who’d sold him the art collection, but the man had vanished; it turned out that authorities were looking for him because he’d illegally looted ancient tombs and sold the contents. Barrett consulted experts in the field, he studied ancient texts, but he never found what he was looking for. When his plane went down over that mountain pass in Turak, he was still searching for answers.”
Barrett had died when Kenneth’s father Maxwell was ten years old. Kenneth only knew his grandfather from the oil paintings that hung in his father’s house.
“I know that Sophronia approached my grandmother after the plane went down, wanting to buy his collection of ancient Sumerian artwork,” Kenneth said. “I don’t know a lot of the details, but I do know that my grandmother refused to have anything to do with her, and Sophronia continued to approach my family over the years.”
“If I can find out anything more, I’ll let you know,” Hamish said.
“All right. Go back to sleep. My apologies for disturbing you.”
Then he called Tyler so that his computer genius friend could trace the license plate number that he’d written down. Tyler had ways of accessing national legal databases – ways that Kenneth chose not to question.
He was shocked when Tyler gave him the answer.
“Hammersmith Security? What could they possibly want with Chloe?” Hammersmith Security was a rival security agency, run by humans. Their agency frequently employed shady tactics. He’d poached several of their best employees, as well as taking in Jax Mackenzie, whom they’d fired rather than give him is portion of a substantial reward.
Were they here to interfere with his investigation, purely out of spite? Did they have some financial interest in this matter? Kenneth couldn’t imagine what interest that would be. He should have been relieved that the man wasn’t pursuing Chloe romantically, but every time a picture of the man’s hand on Chloe’s arm flashed through his mind, he wanted to shift and shred the man’s face with his claws.
Next Kenneth called his father, several times in a row, leaving increasingly irritated messages on his answering machine.
Four hours later, Kenneth was pacing in his hotel room in panther form, which he tended to do when frustrated, when his cell phone rang. Kenneth quickly shifted back to human form, sparing a glance at the wall, which he’d shredded with impatient swipes of his huge paws. He was going to have one hefty hotel bill.
It took a healthy heaping of wheedling and flattery, but finally his father told him what little he knew. .
Maxwell knew that before Barrett married his mother, he had been engaged to Sophronia, and the engagement had ended, quite badly. There was some kind of blow-up between the two of them, with Sophronia accusing him of stealing artwork from her, and repeatedly breaking into his house in Russettville.
His grandfather had eventually abandoned the house in Russettville where he’d once planned a life with Sophronia. He boarded it up and never returned. He married Elizabeth, and the two had moved around among his houses in Europe, a house in California, all over the world. Maxwell remembered his father as a workaholic, grim, serious, given to locking himself up in h
is workshop until late at night, when he was home at all. He seemed to spent most of his time travelling.
Maxwell remembered his father’s obsession with Turak, and also how he’d been shown a picture of her and warned that if she ever were to approach him, he was to run away from her and tell the nearest adult. When Maxwell took over his grandfather’s various business interests as an adult, both Sophronia and her daughter Hilary had contacted him attempting to buy any artwork or statues of Sumerian origin that his family owned, but Maxwell honored his late father’s wishes, which were written into his will: never to have any business dealings of any kind with Sophronia or her family.
Kenneth finally settled in for a quick cat nap as the sun rose, frustrated and feeling no closer to the truth about the mysterious Sophronia and her strange obsession with an obscure collection of artwork from halfway around the world.
Chapter Seven
The country of Turak, located in modern-day Sumer
Bobbi and Pixie stood next to their luggage, watching the plane disappear into the horizon.
Bobbi had called in a major favor from an old contact of hers to find a mercenary willing to fly her and Pixie into Turak, to the outskirts of El-Shehar, where the family of El-Debar lived. Some might even call it blackmail; having worked as a member of the Enforcers for the National Shifters Council, she knew where a lot of the bodies were buried. Whatever. She was in Turak, which was all that mattered.
She didn’t even want to know what kind of cargo the plane was transporting, and she thanked her lucky stars that the plane hadn’t been shot down out of the sky during their highly illegal landing.
They were now on their own for one week. A week from that day, Kenneth had arranged for a plane to land several miles outside the city limits to pick up Jax and Heath; now, Bobbi and Pixie would be on that plane as well. It was the safest day of the year to fly, because it was a national holiday, and there would be a temporary cease-fire between the two warring factions which were tearing Turak to pieces.
His Purrfect Mate Page 5